The Case of Mexico's 1995 Peso Crisis and Argentina's 2002 Convertibility Crisis

A series of economic and transformational crises in Latin America during the 1990s and the early 2000s pushed many households into poverty. In this paper we look at the two most significant of those crises that took place in Mexico and Argentina and explore the policy measures that were put in place to mitigate their impact on the economy and more importantly, on the population. For this purpose, the analysis looks at a series of transmission channels form economic shocks through the macro to the meso-level, the effects of these impacts on households and their behaviour, and more specifically on children. The paper sheds some light on the different angles through which the current (and future) crisis might affect individuals, particularly children. More importantly, the paper draws out some lessons learned from the effective and ineffective policy responses put in place almost ten years ago, which can be relevant to infom decision makers dealing with policy responses to mitigate the impact of poverty and vulnerability in the wake of the current crisis.